Do you use a tactical approach to business blogging? All social media needs a well-defined marketing strategy. By combining that strategy with our process of using other social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube) to direct traffic to the blog—your blog will become the central hub of your strategic plan. As part of our social media training, we want to help you effectively incorporate blogging tactics into your social media marketing plan.

The Tactical Wheel

The Tactical Wheel provides a set of instructions any business can follow to start a successful marketing effort and deliver value on an ongoing basis.  Here are our suggestions for using the Tactical Wheel as a guide for blogging to ensure you’re moving your company in the right direction.

1. Listening. Listening is an important first step in the Tactical Wheel process in order to understand who your target audience is and how you should present messaging to that audience. A key tactic is to search the blogosphere for keywords and phrases relevant to your industry, and learn what other blogs focus on your industry. It’s important to get a good handle on who is in your target audience and what interests them most.
2. Building community. A key to a successful social media presence is an active, vibrant community. Make sure you respond to all comments you receive on your blog and continue to engage with readers in order to grow your blog community.
3. Broadcasting. Broadcasting is the process of sharing your content within the social media communities to communicate with, offer value and influence your target audience. Every time you publish a new blog post, make sure you share the link to it through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Add social media icons to your blog’s homepage, so it’s easy for your readers to share the posts as well.
4. Content. Content is another important part of the social media marketing process. Be sure to publish unique, quality content often and make sure it’s relevant to your target audience. Share your brand’s personality and give your company a unique voice. Share a story and engage with readers. The blog is also the best place to use search engine optimization.
5. Conversion. The final step of the process, conversion, is where we gather up those prospects you acquired and retained with the first four steps and convert them into customers. The best way to do this through blogging is to have a call to action at the end of every blog post and in your blog header. Send them to a specific phone number, form fill or email address for more information. Don’t hesitate to tell them what you want...as long as you have offered them value in your blog post it’s okay to take a moment to sell yourself in the end. 

When you use these blogging tactics in your social media marketing strategy, you will reach your audience more effectively and achieve the desired results.

If you want to take a look at the Splash Media U training library for other blogging tactics or social media training, sign up for our 14-day free trial today. It comes bundled with SplashCube, our social media marketing software to help manage your social media campaigns!